Children are being "raised in captivity" because parents are afraid to let them go outside, according to Professor Tanya Byron, leading them to take risks online.

The clinical psychologist and television presenter, who was commissioned by Gordon Brown to investigate the harmful effects of video games and websites, claimed that adults are afraid of young people in Britain's risk-averse society.

However, she warned that attempts to keep children safe by cooping them up indoors could backfire, because they are likely to turn to the internet where they face greater danger from cyber-bullying or sexual predators.

Professor Byron, a mother of two, urged parents to find out more about the "global playground" in which they are allowing their children to roam unsupervised and called for a public internet awareness campaign.

Speaking at the annual forum of the Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel, the industry body that regulates sexual content in publications for young people, Professor Byron disclosed that she believes that Britain is suffering from ephebiphobia – the fear of young people.

Professor Byron, who is now the Chancellor of Edge Hill University, conceded that adults have always been fearful of young people, from ancient Greece onwards.

Related Articles

She said that the way in which society now tries to control their behaviour could have particularly counter-productive consequences.

She said: "My argument is that we live in a risk-averse culture and we are afraid of young people.

"We don't listen to them and we do everything to stop them being who they are.

"It comes from a risk-averse culture which is afraid of youth because youth is about taking risks. If we don't change that, it's a disaster."

She went on: "A lot of young people are raised in captivity.

"You used to come home and be allowed out, but most young people now stay at home. If you can't go outside, where are you going to take your risks?

"In an attempt to make kids safer, we're putting them in a place where they're more at risk."

Professor Byron said that many adults had responded to her review by suggesting that the internet should be shut down completely, or that a "watershed" must be imposed so that children cannot access it after 9pm - showing their failure to understand it.

She said that even potentially harmful websites, such as the "pro-ana" ones that encourage teenagers to develop eating disorders, should not be banned, as vulnerable young people who visit them will then be driven to other sites where they could be preyed on.

Instead, she said parents and teachers, who are on the other side of the "digital divide" to their children who have grown up with computers and mobile phones, should learn more about what young people are doing online.

"They're playing in a global playground with adults and their parents haven't even spoken to them about it.

"Would you let your seven-year-old go outside, walk round, give a few people their mobile number and tell them where they live?"

Professor Byron said that one of the greatest dangers for children now is cyber-bullying, where insults and intimidation that were once confined to the playground continue after school on mobile phones and social networking websites.

She said the Government must carry out a nationwide marketing campaign aimed at adults about websites used by children, which she called "think-click" adverts that would be similar to the "clunk click" ones used to promote seatbelts in the 1970s.